Champoussin & Morgins, CH 01/31/14

For the final day of my trip, I went straight to the massive Swiss side of the Portes du Soleil, which includes six ski villages.

Before I forget, the French have, thankfully, gone really hardcore about protecting the environment on the Portes du Soleil, with all sorts of unavoidable reminders to recycle and not to throw garbage and cigarette butts from the lifts or on the trails:



It takes about 30 minutes of lifts and connecting trails to finally make it across the border. Throughout the region, signage is excellent:



Here are "Les Dents du Midi" ("Teeth of the South"), a well-known geologic photo opp.



Whereas the French side is predominantly serviced by high-speed lifts and dozens of on-mountain restaurants, the Swiss side is mostly fixed-grip or t-bars and far fewer food/beverage options; thus, a more back-to-the-basics environment. Here's a map, which, as mentioned in other TRs, doesn't come close to conveying the vastness of the terrain:



Hike-to couloirs everywhere:



So here's my bit of unplanned adventure from this trip -- when you're skiing by yourself in the midst of such huge expanses, there are all sorts of opportunities to be seduced by tracks going off into untracked paradise. Most of the time, you just say no and stay within visual distance of the trails and that's that. But between the Champoussin and Morgins trail network, I saw a football-field-wide gully of barely touched snow that I couldn't resist: knee-deep bliss. I left the trail here and kept going right:



And kept going (my tracks on the left side):



I must have gone down 1,200 verts before coming to a stop and realizing that I had completely lost my bearings. Long story short, I had to hump my way diagonally uphill in the sunshine for at least an hour (which felt like a lot longer). In addition to concerns about getting cliffed out, another real worry was being stuck in a valley on the Swiss side after the lifts close and the buses stop. A car service back to the French side is, no joke, $300+. Lots of people I talked to know friends who'd made that mistake, which is a lousy way to end the day.

I eventually found a snowshoe trail and ended up gliding into my goal for the day, the chocolate-box village of Morgins:



Today's Special Entree: Horse Steak


Enjoying lunch while looking up at 5,000 skiable verts:



On the way back to France, I ran into this unique shot for Europe -- an organized single's line (lift corrals generally don't exist).



And with that, my 2014 Euro Trip was done.

so far the trip of the year..
now you can pack your skis away..you can't top that this year..

Wow. Another one for the overflowing bucket list.

x10003q wrote

Wow. Another one for the overflowing bucket list.

The trick to making this affordable for mere mortals is using frequent flyer points to cover the flight.

Saving the best for last, glad you made it back ok. That terrain looks incredible!

God, I hate/love these posts so much. Is it too much to ask for a massive collapse of the Euro so I can afford a trip?

mattchuck2 wrote

God, I hate/love these posts so much. Is it too much to ask for a massive collapse of the Euro so I can afford a trip?

That's the least of your problems. Try pricing out a flight.

Thanks for sharing! Your trip reports are always very informative and serve as a great resource for planning destination ski trips.